NY National Guard called up to Afghanistan

Thanks to the Albany Project for bringing this to our attention. Via the Democrat and Chronicle;

The largest single deployment of the New York Army National Guard since 2003 will send more than 1,700 soldiers to Afghanistan, according to an announcement Tuesday from the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs.

About 200 members of the 27th Brigade, headquartered in Syracuse but with members across upstate New York, will deploy as early as September for Operation Enduring Freedom. The rest will leave in the following six months to relieve the South Carolina Army National Guard's 218th Brigade.

Many thanks to our National Guard members for this sacrifice and work they will be doing in Afghanistan. This follows on the heels of their hard work here at home in NY State;

The announcement comes after a busy year at home for the Guard. Members were activated during last summer's floods in the Southern Tier, a winter storm that damaged scores of trees in Buffalo and powerful winter storms in the Hudson Valley and Oswego County.

The National Guard, South Dakota

In an on going series of posts we have called for Rep. Vito Fossella to call for the return of the National Guard to their home states along with their equipment in order to better support our country and communities. Since we have been covering various stories showing the toll sending them and their equipment to Iraq has had at home.

South Dakota
via the Souix City Journal;

The South Dakota National Guard only has 54 percent of its equipment available, according to a spokesman, Maj. Orson Ward.

Ward said $22 million worth of equipment was left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan, contributing to a total drain of more than $100 million in equipment for the state Guard.

snip

Responding to disasters is not the only reason to have equipment available. "For us it's a big deal because what that means is, we do not have that stuff on hand to train on," Ward said.

Support America, bring our National Guard home.

Colbert takes on the National Guard shortages

Support America, bring our National Guard home.

North Carolina, part IX
Georgia, part VIII
Mississippi, part VII
New Hampshire, West Virginia, part VI
The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, part V
Missouri, part IV
Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, part III
The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, part II
The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, part I

The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, part VII

Georgia

Some commanders from the Southeast likewise worry about hurricane season. After a big storm, there is high demand for precisely the sort of troops that have been deployed most heavily -- military police to keep order and engineers to clear debris.

"It's not just how many, it's who, and what kind of skill sets they have," said Maj. Gen. David B. Poythress, Georgia's commander. "When both my MP companies are gone, I don't have any MPs to put on the street." [via Washington Post]

Support America, bring our National Guard home.

The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, part IX

North Carolina

The brigade the North Carolina Guard now has in Iraq came from the southeastern and southern parts of the state, the area that tends to bear the brunt of hurricanes. "We're a little short people in those areas," said Maj. Gen. William E. Ingram Jr., commander of the North Carolina Guard. In order to ensure that he can serve those areas after a disaster, he said, he will have to mobilize more-distant troops sooner, which will make it more expensive for the state. [via Washington Post]

Support America, bring our National Guard home.

The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, part VIII

Mississippi

In Mississippi, the unit designated as "first responders" to repair hurricane damage, the 223rd Engineer Battalion, was deployed for the past year to Iraq. It has come home, said Maj. Gen. Harold A. Cross. But, he added, "they left the equipment in Iraq." He has been told that by hurricane season he will be given the gear belonging to another unit being deployed. He also noted that he has sent 21 helicopters to Iraq, leaving just five for post-storm rescues and transport of cargo and troops. [via Washington Post]

Support and protect America, bring our National Guard home.

The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, part V

via Washington Post;

New Hampshire

Some Guard commanders are beginning to say they simply can't deploy any more troops. "As far as New Hampshire goes, we're tapped," said Maj. Gen. John E. Blair, that state's adjutant general, or Guard commander. Of his 1,700 Army National Guard troops, more than 1,000 are in Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or on alert for deployment. And to get units fully manned to head overseas, he said, "we've had to break other units."

West Virginia

Some soldiers in West Virginia's 1092nd Engineering Battalion got home in April from 14 months of duty in Iraq -- only to be activated in the past few days for weeks of flood-relief work in Mingo County and other southwestern parts of the state. One soldier told the state commander, Maj. Gen. Allen E. Tackett, that he had been back to his civilian job for exactly one day. "The spouses and the employers are raising hell with me," the general said.

Tackett said he is especially worried that his most seasoned soldiers are getting out. "A lot of my experienced people are coming back from deployments and retiring," he said. "They've paid their dues."

Support America, bring our National Guard home.

The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, part IV

Missouri
via KOTV;

Levee breaks along the Missouri River flooded farms, highways and railroad tracks, and left dozens of homes surrounded by water, as the flooding that has inundated the region was expected to peak in some spots this weekend.

snip

Inmates from St. Joseph prison and National Guard members filled sandbags to try to protect a water treatment plant, schools and an ethanol plant near Craig, where the Missouri River dropped a few inches Thursday.

Support America, bring our National Guard home.

The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, part III
The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, part II
How vulnerable is NY when our National Guard is missing?

The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, partIII

Today we follow up on our National Guard week of posts. Saturday I posed some questions about readiness of New York at times when members of our NY State National Guard are fighting in Iraq. Then came a somber supplemental piece, tornadoes destroying communities in Kansas and causing massive devistation and left several dead;

Kansas

The governor said the state's response was limited by the shifting of emergency equipment, such as tents, trucks and semitrailers, to the war in Iraq. [via reuters]

and these from our recent past;

Louisiana

The moment Katrina hit Louisiana, thirty-five percent of that state's National Guard troops were deployed in Iraq. In Mississippi, ground zero for the storm, nearly 40 percent of the National Guard troops were in the Middle East. Indisputably it had an effect on the readiness of the disaster-afflicted region to quickly respond with the home team. Even Army National Guard cheerleader Lt. General H. Steven Blum, Chief of the Army's National Guard Bureau, (Above) couldn't dance around that question. When asked if the deployments of these National Guard units had a negative impact on the initial response, Blum admitted, "Had those brigades been at home and not in Iraq, their expertise and capabilities could have been brought to bear". [via military.com]

Military officials here acknowledged that the Louisiana Guard members faced the prospect of returning from draining, dangerous duty in Iraq and launching quickly into a hurricane relief effort that is expected to last months. [via Washington Post]

Montana

Recognizing the potential danger, Montana 's Governor Brian Schweitzer sounded the alarm in his sparsely populated state. Forty-four percent of Montana 's NG troops are already deployed to Iraq. If Montana has to cope with an emergency such as the huge wild fires the drought-stricken region is prone to, Schweitzer recently admitted "the state of Montana does not have that many assets outside the National Guard". [via military.com]

Support America, bring our National Guard home.

The National Guard in Iraq, makes US States vulnerable, partII

As a follow up to Saturday's piece on the potential devistating effects New York could face with units of its National Guard fighting in Iraq comes a story out of Kansas from this weekend's F5 tornado and how the state is trying to respond;

The National Weather Service classified the tornado an F-5, the highest category and the first F-5 since the weather service revised its scale this year to more comprehensively gauge damage potential, with less emphasis on wind speed. The last tornado classified as an F-5 hit the Oklahoma City area on May 3, 1999, killing 36 people.

The governor said the state's response was limited by the shifting of emergency equipment, such as tents, trucks and semitrailers, to the war in Iraq.

``Not having the National Guard equipment, which used to be positioned in various parts of the state, to bring in immediately is really going to handicap this effort to rebuild,'' Sebelius said.

Let us not wait until something happens here at home in New York to realize the importance of the National Guard in response to domestic disasters. Rep. Fossella for once you can do something, and go tell your friend in the White House to return National Guard units to their home states so they can do their job. Not to mention Gov. Spitzer you need to be in front of every reporter on a daily basis leading this cause with a coalition of Governors.

How vulnerable is NY when our National Guard is missing?

Two weeks ago, while we were being bombarded with rain from our nor'easter, the storm that brought the most rain in over 100 years to the city, did you ever stop and wonder how well equipped we were should you need rescuing, or should the water cause structural damage to roadways or how your community would be evacuated had the water levels started rising? The National Guard is one of the state's rapid response assets that can send trained Guard members and equipment into areas should the Governor declare a 'state of emergency'. Back in our little rain storm many states in the northeast were declaring state of emergencies to mobilize response units. Rep. Vito Fossella even went so far as to petitioned FEMA (helluva job on Katrina!) to declare portions of the district federal disaster areas.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer sent 3,200 National Guard members to potential flood areas. On Saturday he said the storm could cause the most flooding New York has seen since a December 1992 nor'easter, which washed away beach and sand dunes, knocked out power and left thousands of people temporarily homeless, their houses standing in feet of water. [via CNN]

These are the same National Guard members in New York and many other states across the country, that the President has commandeered for his own purposes and sends to Iraq to do what they are supposed to be here doing. Maybe you see where this is going;

"If Long Island were hit with a major hurricane, debilitating shortages of equipment could potentially slow response by the New York Army National Guard and put lives in jeopardy. New data from the Guard shows that the vehicles needed to traverse water-logged streets and to transport medicine and supplies after a natural disaster are in short supply. Only 35 percent of the Guard's authorized Humvees and cargo trucks, for instance, are currently available in New York. Radio equipment is at less than half the authorized levels."

snip

"The thing we'd need the most, we have the least of," said Rep Steve Israel (D-Huntington), who released the data yesterday. "That's the most distressing element. In my district on Long Island, it's not a matter of if, but when a hurricane may strike. A fully staffed and equipped National Guard is the difference between a smooth recovery and another New Orleans." [Newsday 3/23/07]

From the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) comes some realities about just flood possibilities should we have another rain storm or worse, a nearby hurricane landing.

But in 1893 a hurricane came ashore in Jamaica Bay, near where JFK airport sits today. A cluster of saloons, casinos and resort hotels on a sandy spit of land called Hog Island was completely washed away. Even the island disappeared.

A few miles west of the hurricane's eye, almost every building on Coney Island was destroyed. There was extensive flooding in Brooklyn and wind damage to many of the city's innovative new skyscrapers, including the just-finished Metropolitan Life building.

Meteorologists estimate that the 1893 storm was only a category 2 hurricane.

"A 2 in New York City is bad news," Coch said. "A 3 is a disaster and a 4 is a catastrophe." [via MSNBC]

Rep. Vito Fossella our mission has been 'accomplished' in Iraq. Isn't it time to ensure that our state National Guard members come home and stay home. Support New Yorkers, keep our National Guard in New York, or at the very least in our own country.

update: cross posted over at The Albany Project.